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Atlas / NTSB / ANC10CA089

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event ANC10CA089

2010-09-14 Bethel, Alaska, United States Airport · PABE None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot's failure to maintain altitude/clearance during a night approach, resulting in a collision with terrain short of the runway.

Factual narrative

The solo commercial pilot was doing full stop night landings, to become night current under Title 14, CFR Part 91. He said on his third landing, he noticed that the vertical approach slope indicator (VASI) lights were becoming red over red indicating that he was below the glide slope. He said he should have applied full power. The pilot reported that the airplane continued to descend, and struck the elevated instrument landing system (ILS) runway centerline lights and terrain short of the runway. He said there were no mechanical problems with the airplane prior to the accident. The airplane's fuselage sustained substantial damage during the accident. The solo commercial pilot was doing full stop night landings, to become night current under Title 14, CFR Part 91. He said on his third landing, he noticed that the vertical approach slope indicator (VASI) lights were becoming red over red indicating that he was below the glide slope. He said he should have applied full power. The pilot reported that the airplane continued to descend, and struck the elevated instrument landing system (ILS) runway centerline lights and terrain short of the runway. He said there were no mechanical problems with the airplane prior to the accident. The airplane's fuselage sustained substantial damage during the accident. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

Hierarchical cause / factor breakdown from the FAA bulk avdata database. Each finding tagged C (Cause) or F (Factor).

  • C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Altitude-Not attained/maintained - C
  • C Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-(general)-Pilot - C

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2010_ANC10CA089.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.